LaCrosse, WI

This picture pretty much sums up the day in LaCrosse. It was very restful and full of opportunities to eat some wonderful food. The hard part is NOT eating all the wonderful food. If, for some reason you think that Viking Cruises are the best--think again, American Cruise Lines has it beat, hands down. I've been on one from each, and ACL is better. You need to try both of them and make a comparison for yourself--and just think--you get two cruises out of the deal. BTW, no matter which one you choose, both are good.

After an early breakfast and a walk around the boat--and a little nap--we were ready for lunch and a short excursion. I've decided to eat small lunches in order to fit in my clothes at the end of the voyage. We took a "loop" tour of the city. Think of a hop-on-hop-off bus...only this bus is owned by ACL. In fact, the bus driver drives her bus using a similar land route as the boat. She leaves when the last tour is done and heads for the next port of call--gets an overnight hotel room at the "next" city and is ready to go for the first tour that starts about 9 AM. We have our own dedicated bus and driver--a very different model than the one used by European river boats.

We saw "old" LaCrosse and "new" LaCrosse. At the turn of the last century some mighty fine homes were being built and they are still being used. We learned there are 4 institutes of higher education in town; we saw the old German Catholic Church and the old English Catholic Church. Back in the day, folks spoke German or English. This made sense to me as my German grandmother grew up in Wisconsin and spoke German before she spoke English.

We returned to the boat and sat on the back deck and had our afternoon cookie and recounted our day. We had yummy tenderloin for dinner and Italian Lemon Cake for dessert (see why we have to cut down on lunch?) and then retired to our room to see the last edition of Indiana Jones. A good day on the river. Right now we are cruising downriver to Dubuque, Iowa. Keep watching this spot to see what happens next.